


Interlude: Partnership

by Harukami



Series: For The Birds [3]
Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-08
Updated: 2014-02-08
Packaged: 2018-01-11 14:24:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1174123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harukami/pseuds/Harukami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr user Haeralis suggested: something nice happening to beni in your birdshipping ficverse, because beni made me sad and i would like a tiny happy for him '-'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interlude: Partnership

"Beni!" It's Koujaku calling. "Beni, where're you at?"

Beni thinks, briefly, of not responding. What's going to happen? He sees that look on Koujaku's face again, the miserable dejection and acceptance of his situation? He put that look there. He's the one who made Koujaku face his feelings for Aoba -- and what good did that do? It's not like Aoba's going to come home to Koujaku if Koujaku asks, it's not like Koujaku can be _happy_. All he can do is not ignore how unhappy he is.

It feels shitty and Beni feels like a shitty partner and he doesn't blame Ren for not having been 'available' to talk to him. Sure, Ren's been apologizing and sending message after message and it's not that Beni doesn't believe it, but it's only right that Ren took that time to support Aoba. That's what a partner is supposed to do. Ren is a proper Allmate.

Beni kind of wishes he had never been activated.

"Beni! Come back, please... did he run away, really...?"

The tone in Koujaku's voice makes him shake himself out of his sulk. So he fucked shit up! So he feels like he doesn't have anywhere to turn. So what if he feels like he doesn't have any friends any more. Koujaku is sounding lonely and calling for him and he isn't such a lame-ass loser to let that go by.

"What??" he yells, from the hanging plant. "I was zoning out, Koujaku! Yo, what's up??"

There is the creak as Koujaku stands on the bed, and his head comes into view. He smiles That smile at Beni -- the relieved and genuine one that covers up his pain, and holds out a hand. "Jeez, you actually had me thinking you'd left me."

"I'd never leave you," Beni says, affronted. It's more or less true. He's here to stay as long as Koujaku will have him, regrets aside. "We're partners!"

"We're partners," Koujaku says, and scoops him up.

Beni's used to flying, and used to being grabbed by Koujaku, but not used to Koujaku letting himself topple back onto the bed while holding onto him. He squawks, wings flailing. "Youuuuuu! Watch out, I'm delicate, you jerk!"

Koujaku laughs, an actual ha-ha sound, but it doesn't sound forced. He doesn't get up, sprawled upside-down across his bed, but he lowers the arm he has holding Beni, dropping him onto his chest. It's always been a guilty pleasure, that spot; the warmth of Koujaku's skin in the open V of his yukata, against his strong muscles. Beni fluffs up as he settles down on that spot, geta'd feet tucking under himself.

"Beni," Koujaku says after a moment, "Thank you."

"...Eh?"

"Thanks," Koujaku says again, and runs a finger over the back of Beni's head, ruffling slightly. "It was a good idea."

"It...was? It was?? How, exactly? Where and when was it a good idea-?!"

He can mostly only see the underside of Koujaku's chin from here, but he knows that angle well, knows the slight curve of his lips as they curve into a smile. 

"I feel like maybe I can start to let go," Koujaku says. "You know, Beni, there's an awful lot of things I can't let go of. Maybe that'll never change. But in the end, I've been clinging onto Aoba in a sort of selfish way, haven't I? ...I'm glad he's happy. It's not...what I've wanted. But my feelings have been pulled in too many different ways. How can I love someone so strongly while planning..."

This is the first Beni has heard of any plans. He fluffs up a little and, mistakenly, asks, "Planning what?"

"Nothing," Koujaku says. "It's nothing. I just need to become a better me, don't I? This love is selfish. Perhaps confessing was too, but if I couldn't share it, couldn't see his reaction with my own two eyes, maybe it'd hever stop hurting. Not that it's stopped yet, but..." He sighs, props himself up a little, smiles down at Beni. "You have to move on, you know? Even if you carry it with you. You have to move on."

Beni doesn't have a heart to pound, nor throat muscles to swallow with -- he can take in food, and he can make the sound, but it's not the same. Nevertheless, the strange rush through him feels like a pulsing throb, like an emotional dry mouth. Koujaku is smiling that distant, heavy-lidded smile that Beni has always privately thought of as the lady-killer, and there's no being alive with thoughts and feelings of its own that wouldn't react to that.

That stupid Bird had said too much. When he hadn't had words for it, he hadn't thought of things like this, wondered a 'what if'. Something stirs inside him at the thought, a mixture of anger and embarrassment and exhiliration, and he makes himself stop thinking about it. His stupid, misguided thing with Huracan is irrelevant here. Koujaku needs him here.

"You know you've always got me watching out for you!" Beni says.

"I know," Koujaku says, and strokes down the curve of Beni's back, a soft touch. "Thank you, Beni."


End file.
